Animal Spirits and Magic
by Serpent In Red
Summary: There was something wrong with their Princess.


**Prompt**: #35. Act  
**Betas**: None. You have been warned.**  
Disclaimer**: I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them. I merely borrow them from time to time.  
**Rating**: T  
**Notes**: Cross-posted on my LJ.  
**Summary**: There was something wrong with their Princess.

~-0-~

**Animal Spirits and Magic**

From the corner of her eye, Mercury noticed the look of unease on Jupiter's face and how the Senshi of Thunder fidgeted around.

"What's the matter, Jupiter?" Venus asked, the sharpness that entered her eyes hardly diminished by the lazy way with which she lounged on the swing chair underneath the tree with pink blossoms.

_Sakura_. Mercury remembered that was what certain Terran tribes called them.

Shaking those thoughts from her head, she placed her concentration back on her sisters-in-arms.

A frown was now imprinted on Jupiter's face along with uncertainty.

Mars remained in her meditative position, though she opened her eyes and glanced at Jupiter, too.

"There's something wrong with Princess," Jupiter blurted out.

Venus's eyes momentarily narrowed. "How so?"

Jupiter shrugged and threw her hands in the air. "I … don't know. It just doesn't feel right."

Mars raised an eyebrow. "That tells us a lot."

"I mean … I was going to ask her to come down to lunch with us, but Naru stopped me, saying that—"

"That?" Venus asked.

The frown on Jupiter's forehead deepened. "Naru told me that Princess wanted to be left alone, that she's _**reading**_."

Silence reigned, and no one so much as batted an eyelash. The moment lasted for so long that Jupiter sighed.

"Maybe I'm thinking too—"

"Something is _**definitely **_wrong," Mars said.

"We need to get her checked out," Venus concluded.

"Did she fall on her head while she was with the rest of you?" Mercury asked.

"Wait, wait!" Jupiter exclaimed, holding her arms out, as if they would storm the Moon Princess's quarters and grab their charge for aforementioned tests immediately. "Perhaps I was just thinking too much. Perhaps it's … perhaps she just developed a new hobby."

Silence followed again, though this time, it was tinged with a hint of awkwardness while three of the Senshi stared at the last one. A blush appeared on her face.

"Okay, maybe not," Jupiter muttered.

"Maybe she got possessed?" Venus suggested as she sat up from the chair.

"Evil spirits can't possibly enter the Silver Millenium and possess its inhabitants that easily," Mars replied. "Not with the Silver Crystal protecting us."

"But she's been visiting the Earth a couple of times already. Who knows if she'd been attacked then?" Mercury analyzed with her forefinger on her lips. Her eyebrows furrowed in deep thought as she contemplated the situation and possibilities.

Jupiter straightened her back, her eyes wide in fear. "A Terran friend of mine once mentioned something about fox spirits taking over human bodies. Do you think that could be it?"

Venus's eyes slid over to the Senshi of Thunder, a strange smile on her face. The mixture of seriousness, amusement, and alertness was almost frightening on that lovely face. Though she didn't say anything, Jupiter shifted in her position uncomfortably, as if she had been caught red-handed with her hand inside the cookie jar.

"The amount of energy that's required to perform the spirit-banishing ritual might alert Queen Serenity. I don't want to risk that without enough proof that there's, indeed, a Terran animal spirit inside her," Mars said, shaking her head.

"We could run tests on her, but we need to get her out of her room first. Do you think you can lure her to my lab, Jupiter?" Mercury asked.

A look of relief appeared on Jupiter's face before she recomposed herself. "I'm not sure, but I can try. Is there anything else we can do?"

Mercury shook her head. "If you can get her to my lab, I'll handle the rest."

There were enough traps in there to incapacitate a small army if the situation required it, but that was one thing that Mercury had never told the other Senshi; she didn't think it would be necessary. The Silver Millenium was a kingdom of peace, and the Silver Crystal possessed more than enough energy to ward off offending outsiders.

~-0-~

"There is definitely something wrong with her, Mercury," Jupiter's voice whispered from the communicator.

"Just get her to the lab first, so we can be certain," Mercury replied soothingly.

"No, you don't understand. Her eyes … they're different. I've never seen them so … I don't even know how to describe it," Jupiter muttered hastily.

"Jupiter, I'm ready. So where did you say Mother required us to be?" Serenity's voice came from the other end before Mercury heard the telltale sound of Jupiter turning off the communicator.

Mercury frowned. It was Serenity's voice … right? For some reason, it sounded a lot more high-pitched than usual, and there was a … quality that usually wasn't there.

_Flirtatious_.

She shook her head. Their princess might be playful, but she was never coy. Where did that thought even come from? It must be because of all the readings she'd done on Terran animal spirits.

Shaking that thought from her head, she continued preparing the computers for the tests that she would run later on.

Minutes later, as she read over the statistics of the system, she heard a soft knock on the door.

"Come in," she called.

The door opened, and Jupiter and Serenity appeared at the doorway. From the corner of her eye, Mercury watched Serenity step into the room, looking around as if it were the first time she'd seen something like it. The fascination from her was palpable, and that made Mercury fear for the worst.

If possible, they did not want to alert Queen Serenity about her daughter's "outgoing personality" and the various visits she'd made to Earth.

Though Mercury suspected that the Queen probably knew already.

"Um … so …" Jupiter stammered, glancing at Mercury for a clue in regards to what to do.

Mercury gave her a short nod. "I'll take care of everything from here."

Serenity's eyes snapped to Jupiter, and for a second, suspicious and some other emotion—was it fear?—fleeted across her face.

"What's going on?" Serenity asked, blinking her eyes almost innocently as Jupiter exited the room.

Mercury glanced at Serenity and nearly lost her composure. She finally understood why Jupiter was so worried. Those were _**not**_ the eyes she had gotten used to.

No. If she'd thought that the voice she had heard over the communicator was flirtatious, she had no idea how to describe the eyes she was presented with. Serenity held onto her gaze, and uncontrollably, Mercury blushed and glanced away.

"It's time for your health check-up, Princess," she said calmly.

"Health check-up? Since when did we have health check-ups?" Serenity asked, alarmed.

"The atmosphere of Earth is very different, so unless we risk letting Queen Serenity know that you've been sneaking off to Earth, it's prudent that we run these tests on you every once in a while," Mercury lied through her teeth, her expression not giving it away in the least.

Serenity gazed at her and took a step back. "Erm … can we take the test some other day? I … I still … have some things to do and don't … don't have the time to do this."

"It'll only take a minute or two, Princess," Mercury said.

Quietly and subtly, she placed her hand over one of the buttons on the panel as she monitored Serenity's moves.

"No, really. It's pro-probably best if we do this s-some other day," Serenity stuttered.

However, before she could turn around and run out of the room, Mercury activated the shields. Immediately, Serenity was immobilized.

"W-wait!" Serenity exclaimed, glancing around in fear.

Mercury didn't bother listening to her; her eyes were trained on the hologram that had appeared in front of her, hovering above the panel. It contained various statistics, and she immediately picked up a discrepancy.

There was, indeed, something wrong with their Princess!

There was an abnormal spike in the magic surrounding her—it must be because of the animal spirit inside her!

Her fingers flew quickly over the keyboard on the panel, and a smile appeared on her face when the computer presented her with a solution. Perhaps they didn't need to do the spirit-banishing ritual on their Princess after all, and the Queen wouldn't have to be alerted at all.

"You'll be better in just a second, Princess," Mercury said softly, casting a glance towards the terrified girl.

"Please, I can explain, please just let me go," Serenity pleaded.

"Just a second, Princess," Mercury said firmly.

She typed a few more commands into the computer, ignoring the objections coming from her Princess. She tilted her head to one side and decided to add a command to end the incapacitation ward once the abnormal magic had been negated. After all, once their Princess returned to normal, she was bound to be frightened if she was held immobilized.

When everything was ready, she pressed enter. She then turned around, fully expecting to see a confused, yet real, Princess Serenity. However, the scene that greeted her caused her to freeze.

Her mouth dropped open and a furious blush appeared on her cheeks at the same time.

Shreds of what used to be the white gown—most likely, one of Serenity's—were on the ground, having been torn apart when the magic used on "Serenity's" body had been negated.

_Terran magic_.

The one thing that the Lunarian computers weren't fully updated about. And it had been used on the nearly naked man who was now standing in front of her so that he could pose as their Princess.

A _**very**_ handsome naked young man who had coquettish leaf-green eyes and beautiful strawberry-blonde hair.

A similar expression of horror was also imprinted on the young man's face, but he recovered much more quickly than Mercury. Before she could stop him, he disappeared in a flurry of cherry blossoms.

_Pride and arrogance is a fool's best friend_, Mercury mentally thought to herself, regretting her decision to remove the immobilization shield so early on.

Uncontrollable anger, fueled by embarrassment and sense of failure, rose inside her like a snake, and with a flick of her finger, her communicator opened and she contacted the other three Senshi.

Though she had never seen the man before, she was more certain who had sent him.

A trip to Earth was in order.

~-0-~


End file.
